I was about to post the same. Like Martinez, Thibs had a great rep around the league and was a hot coaching candidate. Like Martinez, no one hired him when he first threw his hat in the ring (the Bulls, in their infinite wisdom, wanted both VDN and Collins ahead of Thibs).

I don't think Martinez will ever be as good a manager as Thibs is a coach, but there are some interesting parallels there.

Maybe Martinez will have Sale throw 150 pitches a game and play all the regular starting lineup 160 games too.